February 24 2009
(SPOILER)
When will we be properly introduced to Alpha?
Matt Mitovich from TV Guide in his Mega Minute asked Joss when will we first see the mysterious actor... whoever that might be... playing Alpha.
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Anuris | February 24, 20:54 CET
And im curious, whats the point in labelling the (technical term for what that was...segment?) a 'mega minute' having a countdown and going over? Why even bother other than the alliteration in the title?
Ashley | February 24, 21:02 CET
Septimus | February 24, 21:03 CET
That said, if "not letting us see Alpha's face" is so important (and we've had a big poke in the ribs about that from Echo when she says in Ep. 2 that he has no face), that's gotta mean he's someone we know from elsewhere in the Dollverse, right? That, or it's someone we're going to meet in upcoming eps but won't realize is Alpha.
I suppose the obvious candidate is Ballard--the cop hunting the Dollhouse turns out to be hunting himself. Probably a bit too cheesy for Joss, though. It can't be anyone currently at the Dollhouse, because--one assumes--the others would recognize him. So...that doesn't leave many options, does it? I guess I think it'll be someone else that we meet in upcoming eps as an apparently inoffensive minor character. I'm still guessing that he's they guy holding the video camera for Caroline's 'yearbook' bits.
On preview: That does seem like a long time to keep your Big Bad under wraps.
I guess technically it's only keeping aspect of the Big Bad under wraps. We know he's "Alpha the Quondam Active" ("Had a very shiny knife..."), and presumably the Dollhouse people know quite a lot about him. It would be a bit contrived if they don't tell us some of that info over the coming eps.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 21:11 CET
I think that's it!
ETA: That's too long to wait!
-sigh- α Ω ☹
[ edited by Nebula1400 on 2009-02-24 21:25 ]
Nebula1400 | February 24, 21:19 CET
Krusher | February 24, 21:23 CET
Like in Serenity (the Firefly pilot rather than the movie, although to some extent in the movie as well), we don't get to see the Reavers, we're just told about them and their unspeakable (barely speakable, since they do speak of them?) acts. That makes them so much more scary and ominous than if we had actually seen these freaky, wild person-things on the screen. Keeping them off screen allows us to be as scared of them as the characters rather than being able to point and go "Wow! Cool makeup!".
gt0163c | February 24, 21:23 CET
Oooo I've had this thought too. It would be a lovely twist, if he was like a sleeper agent and obsessed with the Dollhouse by day as Paul but also an Active gone haywire killing people. And he doesn't remember what he does as Alpha, but Paul just can't stop thinking about this Dollhouse business.
[ edited by Sunfire on 2009-02-24 21:26 ]
Sunfire | February 24, 21:26 CET
Yeah. Firefly Reavers were roughly a hundred times freakier than the Serenity version. Incomprehensible, suicidally reckless homicidal maniacs are terrifying. Victims of a drug-experiment-gone-wrong are kinda sad. There's a lot to be said for withholding information.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 21:28 CET
But the intel is good, if all too brief.
Tin Ear Tom | February 24, 21:28 CET
alexreager | February 24, 21:29 CET
Yeah, that's how I was picturing it. But hasn't this been done? I feel like it's kinda cliched, although I can't just now name specific cases.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 21:30 CET
So is this a nefarious plot by Joss & co to get Fox to pick up the 2nd season for more of the Alpha storyline? ;)
snakebyte | February 24, 21:33 CET
Sunfire | February 24, 21:34 CET
No, that's true. It's the how far more than the what that matters. I guess it's more that if they want this to be the big "WTF? No way Alpha was that guy!" moment (which all this "we won't show you who he is until the very end" stuff seems to suggest), then it's going to be hard to bring that off if he's kinda the first guy we all think of.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 21:38 CET
m'cookies actual | February 24, 22:01 CET
Hey, hey--NO SPOILERS!!
(Anyway, we all know it has to be Snuffleupagas, right? He's clearly a psycho killer).
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 22:08 CET
alexreager | February 24, 22:09 CET
That’s true, but I’m afraid that by the time Alpha's story finally starts to kick into some serious gear, the show might be already canned. When you have only 13 guaranteed episodes and a possible axe of cancellation constantly hovering above your head you have to speed things up, otherwise your show might be over sooner than you’ll get to tell the really interesting parts of the story.
[ edited by Simon on 2009-02-24 22:35 ]
Anuris | February 24, 22:19 CET
Otherwise, it would have been an interesting twist.
impalergeneral | February 24, 22:27 CET
I'm glad we won't see Alpha until later on - adds to the suspense.
[ edited by Shep on 2009-02-25 09:35 ]
Shep | February 24, 22:30 CET
As for the "I've seen that before" issue, my first thought was good old Spike and The First.
Septimus | February 24, 22:31 CET
Tonya J | February 24, 22:32 CET
Simon | February 24, 22:35 CET
Shep, your post gives away a really important fact about Alpha, i.e. that he's not, in fact, anyone we've seen in the first two episodes. Care to add some invisi-tags?
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 22:45 CET
Good point. Uh...o.k., you see Alpha is Ballard's evil twin...no? Won't work?
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 22:47 CET
Litwal | February 24, 22:51 CET
I think you've solved it. The adult characters of Sesame Street had to wait 17 seasons to see Snuffy, so it makes sense that Echo has to wait 13 episodes to really see Alpha. (Except Snuffy must have had a massive haircut before sitting unclothed in front of that TV!)
[ edited by OneTeV on 2009-02-24 23:15 ]
OneTeV | February 24, 23:14 CET
Wait for the outcry when they go back to that end-of-Ep1 scene and pull the camera back to reveal the bloody corpse of Big Bird in the kitchen. I predict some controversy.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 23:21 CET
Re: Ballard, no it doesn't make sense (pity in one way, maybe a bit of a gimmicky twist in another) but way before that film-of-a-book-that-we-don't-talk-about, wasn't there a detective story (or maybe even a real case) where the detective finally figures out that he committed the murder but in his sleep ? Got a brain tickle but I can't remember any details (and Google's not my friend tonight).
Saje | February 24, 23:43 CET
m'cookies actual | February 24, 23:53 CET
Wait for the outcry when they go back to that end-of-Ep1 scene and pull the camera back to reveal the bloody corpse of Big Bird in the kitchen. I predict some controversy.
Well, as long as it is not the Big Bird of the Galaxy, to create a Star Trek crossover. ;)
kurna | February 24, 23:53 CET
Bert? Bert's the one that everybody suspects right at the outset because he's got "ticking time bomb" written all over him. Then, of course, suspicion will swing to Oscar--the social outcast--and Grover--the unrepentant anarchist. The empty cookie jar in the kitchen will send them down a brief, only too obvious, blind alley. But Snuffleupagus, man! No one even believes he exists! (Hey--I'm old-school Sesame Street, don't confuse me with this 'out' Snuffleupagus crap). The only one who witnessed him enter the house was Big Bird, so Big Bird had to die.
The worst thing is that they'll end up pinning it on Big Bird as a murder-suicide. But I've said too much.
snot monster from outer space | February 24, 23:58 CET
Tonya J | February 24, 23:59 CET
The worst thing is that they'll end up pinning it on Big Bird as a murder-suicide. But I've said too much.
So you think they'll suspect fowl play ?
(hey, someone had to go there ;)
Kind of Angel Heart-ish, only with less Satan?
Yeah, ish m'cookies. It's either an old story or it's period because I have a sort of vague 19th century France feeling and I seem to recall the (female) victim was strangled (but it's very possible i'm conflating different stories - certainly the setting sounds like Poe's ur-detective Auguste Dupin, pretty sure it's not him though).
Saje | February 25, 00:04 CET
Tonya J | February 25, 00:12 CET
"This," I said, "is the mark of no human hand."
"Read now," replied Dupin, "this passage from Cuvier." It was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive account of the large fulvous Ourang-Outang of the East Indian Islands. The gigantic stature, the prodigious strength and activity, the wild ferocity, and the imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently well known to all. I understood the full horrors of the murder at once.
I turned to Dupin, who was gazing at his reflection in a large pier-glass that adorned the drawing room with a look of slowly-dawning understanding. "What is it?" I asked.
"Ook!" he said.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 00:15 CET
Truly a strange and indistinct language, the sense of which none can make. Also, it'd explain the 14 crates of bananas a day.
Saje, Alpha looked pretty bulky from the back, so I'd say more like some woman on steroids ... I'm just reaching now (And of course, Michael Caine is way too withered to put his wig back on).
Oh yeah, agreed, it's definitely a naked bloke we see but i'm wondering about sharing an imprint or something, passing it back and forth maybe ? Or multiple copies of the same composite personality, like a "composite" of composites ?
[ edited by Saje on 2009-02-25 00:18 ]
Saje | February 25, 00:15 CET
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 00:17 CET
Saje | February 25, 00:24 CET
Tonya J | February 25, 00:28 CET
Oh, I don't doubt that at all. Well, at least, I assume that Naked Guy has acted as a homicidal maniac acts. But couldn't Naked Guy have been imprinted by Alpha to act that way? I mean, is it possible that Alpha has access to a brain-imprinter relaxychair? So Alpha could be the homicidal maniac behind the scenes, but not necessarily the one out doing all the stabbing and cutting and putting of photos into envelopes.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 00:31 CET
(but if it were Saunders behind the scenes, she could get around the issue of getting another imprinting machine from somewhere, which is one of my more practical objections to the Alpha-the-big-old-imprinter-dude theory i.e. it can't be easy technology to buy/build/whatever. Course, there're all sorts of other ways around that too. Maybe there're other branches of dollhouse or a prototyping lab or a reclusive original inventor of the technology or similar)
Saje | February 25, 00:41 CET
Tonya J | February 25, 00:46 CET
I<3 Alpha.
missyu | February 25, 00:46 CET
I<3 Alpha.
You know, it may well be difficult for those of us who don't want to be spoiled not to be spoiled. But it sure would be easy for those of you who chose to be spoiled not to give away things like the gender of Alpha and whether or not we've already seen him/her etc.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 00:54 CET
Buffy the Slayer Layer | February 25, 00:56 CET
Indeed. And it would kinda make sense--given that no one else got slashed and lived to tell the tale.
Yep, distinct possibility though for now i'm going on the premise that he's not imprinting folk left and right for not much better a reason than because I personally prefer the idea of Alpha, like some psychological Rambo, using what he can find or make in the field to play his own twisted version of the dollhouse against itself.
Yeah, I agree, actually. If mindwiperelaxychairs proliferate you'll end up in Rambaldi-device world. Too much tennis without a net if everybody ends up being a puppet or a secret agent etc. But even without imprinting, Naked Guy need not be Alpha. Alpha could still have coerced or bribed a psycho killer to do his bidding.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 00:58 CET
I so love the idea of Saunders being in on it. It would be really twisted if she took that slashing as part of a misdirection.
Well, it's like someone (was it you Tonya J ?) said, why did he spare her ? I mean as far as we know, of all the people he meets on his rampage he doesn't kill exactly two, Echo and Saunders. Course, it could just be that Saunders showed him kindness and he remembered that and let her live but then why slash her at all ? So maybe she took it as misdirection (or maybe she did it herself, same reason) or maybe by scarring her Alpha's trying to create another sort of "composite event", the same way he might be trying to do with Echo. But it seems reasonable to assume there's more to Saunders than a shrinking violet physician.
[ edited by Saje on 2009-02-25 01:01 ]
Saje | February 25, 00:59 CET
Buffy the Slayer Layer | February 25, 01:00 CET
She can shrink!?
[ edited by snot monster from outer space on 2009-02-25 01:02 ]
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 01:00 CET
Saje | February 25, 01:03 CET
Topher: "Doc Saunders looks like a jigsaw puzzle and what he did to Samuelson..."
We can spoilerfree discuss Alpha's gender: he is male.
Buffy the Slayer Layer | February 25, 01:09 CET
Tonya J | February 25, 01:12 CET
Well, it's not really clear in that scene that what she sees is exactly the "real" memory. But now that I think about it, the Dollhouse staff refer to Alpha as "he." And I guess they do know. So apologies, Missyu.
ETA: or, what Buffy the Slayer Layer says above.
[ edited by snot monster from outer space on 2009-02-25 01:14 ]
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 01:13 CET
And had In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on, cranked to the max...
m'cookies actual | February 25, 01:14 CET
I think the best thing to do is to avoid discussions where you know there may very well be spoilers you want to avoid. Since this link doesn't specifically mention who will play Alpha (only when we'll see his face), I think Simon made the right call in forbidding that info.
Buffy the Slayer Layer | February 25, 01:20 CET
Oh I do, believe me. But once people have been spoiled they find it really hard to imagine that other people haven't been. I do wish Shep would come back to this thread and clean up his/her post. I mean it's a really casual comment which I'm quite sure never crossed Shep's mind as a spoiler, but it really blew up a bunch of tempting lines of speculation.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 01:26 CET
I know, wild theory, but fun to speculate on.
Whisper | February 25, 02:15 CET
Not too wild, I think. I'm guessing that Alpha at the very least thinks of himself as the "good guy"--avenging angel, at least. There's something about that scene of the guy sitting naked, calmly watching the video that doesn't suggest "normal," though. And we know that Alpha set up the scenario in Ep 2, which involved killing a harmless ranger and Boyd's driver (pretty unlikely that that guy was somehow central to Dollhouse's activities)--and at the very least involved a reckless disregard for Echo's life.
I think Alpha kinda has to be a nutjob, but no doubt one with an interesting version of his own story.
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 02:22 CET
SteveJ2008 | February 25, 02:53 CET
You think maybe they should have planned to finish all the season plot lines by episode six?
snot monster from outer space | February 25, 06:37 CET
Anyway, there's always DVD.
Rachelkachel | February 25, 08:12 CET
Too big a recognition factor could take me out of the moment when the reveal finally happens. And that's what I really don't want to happen.
MissKittysMom | February 25, 15:31 CET
Anyways, I think people are getting off topic... about the parallels between Dollhouse and the muppets. I tried to think about the recasting, and could use help. This is off of the top of my head.
Echo: Elmo
Boyd:Kermit
Topher: Count/Fozzie Bear
Ballard: Big Bird/Cookie Monster
Victor: Grover/Gonzo
DeWitt: Miss Piggy/Merryl Sheep
Dominick: Bert/Animal
Saunders: Beaker
Alpha: Snuffleupagus
Critics who don't like Dollhouse: Statler & Waldorf :-)
OneTeV | February 25, 17:30 CET
gossi | February 26, 00:38 CET
Joss takes pleasure (again, not naughty). I refute this, you so are too!
What happened when the lights went out. Sadly, this is not a naughty post. Oh come on, I know "sadly" I was not born yesterday!
:=)
Tonya J | February 26, 01:04 CET
Sunfire | February 26, 02:11 CET